RODRIGO SALOMON PRESENTS CARLOS QUINTANA

Tengo Hambre. Oil on canvas 68x72

Carlos Quintana is a contemporary Cuban artist known for his expressive paintings, which meld collective memory, fantasy, and personal symbolism. Often featuring bald figures, Quintana’s work shifts between grotesqueness and beauty while exploring the formal properties of paint. Combining and hybridizing iconography of East and West, Carlos Quintana presents us with a feverish dreamlike universe where diversities and similarities appear to be magically suspended and balanced. Quintana’s knowing and masterful use of color enhances every aspect of his vision as does his strong yet understated skill in drawing that allows his figures to powerfully emerge with unnerving serenity from any surrounding chaos.

Quintana’s works show the influence of paradigmatic artists such as Schnabel, Baselitz, Kiefer, and Goya. His pictorial works include disturbing codes and discourses, as well as an almost obsessive interest in bearing witness to the offensive passages that show the violence and the filth of everyday life. He usually takes classic historical art scenes to represent daily conflicts, and his tendency to use a palette of solid colors adds a symbolic character to his work, which is full of cultural references.

Caballo blanco. Oil on canvas 79x79 33 fingers Aladino Pinareño. Oil on canvas 72x60